Core Concerns, Care Embodiments

Presented by Smartwear Revolution at McMullen Gallery

Artwork (detail) by Sheryl Spencer, 2026

Core Concerns, Care Embodiments

October 5 – 25, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, October 9, 6 – 9pm
Quiet, masked Opening Reception: Friday, October 9, 5 – 6pm
McMullen Gallery, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton

Artists: Dylan Brenneis, Calli Giroux, Michelle Kwasnycia, Brooke Leifso and Mona Dehghanzadeh Sahi, Monique Mah, Samantha McLeish, Aynaz Raoufian, Sheryl Spencer, and Al Young.

How might an assistive technological fabric hold and support the body while attending to the extraordinary complexities of embodiment with care? Core Concerns, Care Embodiments is the first public presentation of artistic work created in connection with Co-designing a Smartwear Revolution, an interdisciplinary research project led by the University of Alberta, developing “smart” garments that can respond to the body and provide support when needed.

Artwork (detail) by Michelle Kwasnycia, 2026

The exhibition features new work by current students and recent graduates from the University of Alberta Department of Art and Design alongside collaborators on the Smartwear Revolution project. From the intimate to the systemic and the relational to the responsive, the artworks in Core Concerns, Care Embodiments tend to the complexities, multiplicities, and potential choreographies of bodies, assistive technologies, and care networks. Together, they take up the poetics of one of the project’s core scientific and technical research concerns: what can (trunk) support do? Core Concerns, Care Embodiments is curated by Smartwear Revolution PhD student researcher and curator Ginger Carlson.

A series of public programs will bring the artists and the exhibition’s concerns into conversation with individuals and initiatives supporting and resourcing disability arts networks. The exhibition coincides with the launch of a Call for Expressions of Interest open to artists, designers, performers, and other creatives interested in presenting and producing artistic projects in dialogue with the Smartwear Revolution. The Smartwear Revolution project is funded by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF).

Artwork (detail) by Aynaz Raoufian, 2026

About Smartwear Revolution

Smartwear Revolution is a large, co-developed research project led by researchers at the University of Alberta and a team of international researchers, funded by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund – Transformation Stream. The project involves the codesign of smartwear fibres to create intelligent garments that provide assistance for basic trunk support, arm and leg support and movement for activities of daily living, and basic injury prevention for People with Lived Experience (PLEX) of neuromuscular weakness, adults of an older age, caregivers, and healthcare workers.

Land Acknowledgement:
The University of Alberta, its buildings, labs, and research stations are primarily located on the traditional territory of Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, Iroquois, Dene, and Ojibway/Saulteaux/Anishinaabe nations; lands that are now known as part of Treaties 6, 7, and 8 and homeland of the Métis. The University of Alberta respects the sovereignty, lands, histories, languages, knowledge systems, and cultures of First Nations, Métis and Inuit nations.

Smartwear Revolution
University of Alberta
Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry
Department of Medicine 5-005B Katz Group Centre
Edmonton, Alberta T5G 2E1
smartwearrevolution.com
adwg@ualberta.ca
(780) 492-8991

Instagram @smartwear_revolution

McMullen Gallery
University of Alberta Hospital
8440 112 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T6G 2B7

Accessibility:
The McMullen Gallery is fully wheelchair accessible. An audio description tour of the exhibition and its works will be available both onsite and online. For more accessibility information about the McMullen Gallery, contact gacarlso@ualberta.ca or visit arts.givetouhf.ca/mcmullen-gallery

Image Descriptions:
1. Detail of artwork by Sheryl Spencer. Image of a person sewing fabric with an overlaid yellow graphic line.
2. Detail of artwork by Michelle Kwasnycia. Excerpt of a printmaking artwork with an overlaid blue graphic line.
3. Detail of artwork by Aynaz Raoufian. Still image of a video artwork with an overlaid blue graphic line.